Wednesday, November 12, 2014

MET A FELLOW RV BLOGGER IN YARNELL & DOWN THE MOUNTAIN ON AN OLD STAGE COACH ROAD

CONGRESS’S OLD PIONEER CEMETERY

Louie had a 9 a.m. appointment to have his nails done this morning. Same place Pheebs had her nails clipped a couple weeks ago. He was soon back from the groomer & we all took us for a drive out to the end of Ghost Town Road where two Congress Pioneer cemeteries are located. It was one of the places Jean & Skip hadn’t made it too last time here a couple winters ago.

Had a look across at the old Congress Gold Mine & took us for a drive through a small settlement just up the road from the mine. Kelly & I had looked at a couple pieces of property there back in March of 2012 before we decided on our present location.

From Ghost Town Road we headed ourselves up the Yarnell hill to the wee town of Yarnell itself & took us for a drive around the area where Yarnell’s tragic fire had been a year & a half ago. Pretty well all of the burnt out home sites have been cleaned up & many new homes have already been built. Some are presently under construction while other damaged lots are still bare. Yarnell is a very pretty place all nestled in among huge boulder formations with lots of shady trees. An all round nice seasonal place to live. There is talk of erecting a permanent monument to the 19 firefighters who died there right on the actual site where they lost their lives.

We knew fellow RV Blogger Gaelyn from GEOGYPSY lived in Yarnell somewhere but didn’t know the exact location so as we drove slowly around looking at the reconstruction we were keeping an eye out for a 5th wheel & a dark colored pick-up truck. And sure enough we found her. Luckily she was home so Gaelyn, Jean & Skip were all able to meet each other. They were familiar with each others blogs. Gaelyn showed us the spot where a shed had once stood but burnt in the fire causing her to lose a bunch of mementos. She said feelings are mixed in Yarnell about the location of the firefighter’s memorial & also mentioned how some homeowners who lost their homes in the fire are still having a hard time dealing with their uncooperative insurance companies. With Yarnell tightening up some of it’s municipality laws Gaelyn thinks this may be the last winter she will be allowed to park her 5th wheel on the lot she has been living on for a few years now.

THAT’S GAELYN (GEOGYPSY) IN THE BLUE SHIRT

From Gaelyn’s place we drove to Yarnell’s north end. The ladies were needing a Thrift Store fix & there is one adjacent to Yarnell’s Community Center right on the main street. Kelly found a $4 full length mirror for her bathroom. I somehow ended up with the most loot coming out of there with a couple shirts & a mouse pad. I think Jean found herself a cute artsy pillow & I think Skip found his way back out of the building not long after finding his way into the building. We had hoped to stop into Yarnell’s Ranch House Restaurant but it was closed today. So was the Thunderbird Pizza place just up the road in Peeples Valley. That was two strikes against us. Strike three was the community center where they have a daily luncheon but by the time we walked in the door we were told ‘they were out of food. So it was 3 up 3 down for eateries. But wait…we saw cars parked at the Yarnell Diner so in we went. Let’s just say it was a swing & a miss & leave it at that………………..

YEP WE’RE IN YARNELL ALRIGHT

THIS CREATURE WAS OUTSIDE THE YARNELL COMMUNITY CENTER & HOW YARNELL GOT IT’S NAME

YARNELL COMMUNITY CENTER

IN THOSE DISTANT DARK MOUNTAINS ON THE HORIZON LIES THE BIG TOWN OF PRESCOTT AZ

We had driven the old stage coach road from Stanton up the side of the Weaver Mountains to Yarnell several times before but we had never driven the rough & bouncy road back down from Yarnell to Stanton. Today we did that & what a scenic drive it was as we wound our way around a few tight curves, nosed our way through some dusty gulleys & lumbered around half a dozen gravely switchbacks. A wave to the old & still active gold mining town of Stanton as we passed by. Well there’s really no town anymore but there is a history & there are a lot of modern day prospectors living in RV’s here. The mountains & hillsides all around are pock marked with mine shafts & mining claims. Lots of folks up in them thar hills still digging for gold.

HEADING DOWN THIS PICTURESQUE VALLEY TO STANTON

AUTUMN COLOR & STOPPING FOR A LEG STRETCH

THIS IS THE ORIGINAL STAGE COACH ROAD DOWN THE SIDE OF THE WEAVER MOUNTAINS BETWEEN YARNELL & STANTON

LAST WINTER WHEN WE CAME THROUGH THESE TREES THERE WAS STILL WATER ACROSS THE ROAD AHEAD

A FEW TIGHT CORNERS ALONG THE WAY

A long dusty & fairly flat miserable washboard road led us back to highway 89 & minutes later we were all back home. Wasn’t long & a few of us were in Siesta mode. zzzzzzzz

STANTON ARIZONA TO THE RIGHT

LOTS OF GOLD DIGGING RV FOLKS OVER THERE

AND A MODERN DAY PROSPECTOR I PRESUME

Later in the afternoon we took a walk around the neighbor’s property behind us. It’s the one with the nice Joshua Trees & the property where I did a bunch of cleaning up last winter. The fella who owns the property lives in Alberta & rarely comes here but we did meet him for the first time earlier this year. Nice fella.

WITH BINOCULARS WE MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SEE OUR HOUSE AT THE FOOT OF THE DATE CREEK MOUNTAINS AHEAD

CLOUD SHADOWS ON THE WEAVER MOUNTAINS

Jean & Skip are rolling out in the morning heading further southwest. I think chances are good we’ll cross paths somewhere again over the next 4 months as Kelly & I also intend on heading further southwest on some of our boondocking ventures. We always like having Jean, Skip, & the doggy gang here. We all have a lot in common & enjoy hanging out & doing things together. We feel very comfortable with them & it will be sad to see them go. We had us a great few days:))

HEADING HOME TO THOSE DISTANT MOUNTAINS ABOUT MID AFTERNOON

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Granny Adams made such beautiful pies! One day I asked her, "How do you get such beautiful pies with the crimps around the edge so even?" "Well, it's a family secret," she said. "But if you promise not to tell, I'll let you in on it." "Okay," I said. "Tell me!" "Well, first, I roll out the dough, making sure it is flat and even. Then I cut out the bottom layer and carefully put in the pie plate and make sure it is firmly against the sides of the plate. Then I slowly pour in the filling, making sure it's not too full. Next, I cut out the top layer and carefully put it over the filling. Finally, I take out my teeth and just run them around the edge of the pie crust and they make the nicest even impressions you ever did see!"

9 comments:

Your groaner reminds me of the story about the old couple who went into McDonald's for lunch. They ordered 1 hamburger, 1 order of fries, and a drink. They took a seat and the wife carefully divided the meal into two portions, then sat quietly while the husband began to eat. The McDonald's employee saw all this and was worried that the old couple did not have money to pay for two meals so she offered to buy them another meal. "No, thank you Dear," said the wife, "we share everything.""But you aren't eating," said the concerned employee."Oh, I'm just waiting for the teeth," explained the old lady.

I wondered about the mirror as well - and whether Jean and Skip were in the back seat of the Jeep! Love those little desert towns, sometimes just getting around to them on the dirt roads is the best fun :-)

AL'S CAMERA EQUIPMENT

A sometimes asked question readers have about my blog is what kind of a camera do I use. Well I have 8 of them and use them all. Five Nikon DSLR's, two quality Sony point and shoots plus one older Canon point and shoot.

'UPDATE':: July 2017 Thanks to a very generous blog reader I have been able to update my Nikon camera equipment and supplement my camera gear with a couple additional fine Sony cameras as well.I now have a 'donated' Nikon D7200 sporting my new Nikkor 18-300 3.5 zoom lens. Also have picked up a new Nikkor 1.8 primary 35mm lens. In addition I also now have a Sony RX100-3 camera as well as a Sony Exmore Cybershot. I have given my Canon Powershot point and shoot camera to a neighbor.

- In early 2017 I replaced my Nikon D-90 camera with a new D-3400 after the 'auto focus' feature on my aging D-90 quit working. The Nikon D-90 had been my work horse camera sporting a Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens. I used this camera for most of my landscapes and I now have it set up for night photography where 'auto focus' is not necessary.

-My older faithful and favorite Nikon D-40 finally packed it in during the summer of 2015 and I replaced it with a new Nikon D-3100.

- Previous to my Nikon D-90, most of my photos were taken with my old faithful Nikon D-50 from 2006 to early 2011 whereupon the D-50 suffered a rather gruesome death when it fell off a table onto a cement porch in southeastern Arizona. The 70-300mm lens on the camera survived the fall but the D-50 did not. My Nikkor lenses are interchangable between the D-90 the D-3100 and the D-3400.